Red Riding Hood
by TheIllusionMaster
Summary: This was originally an essay for my English class, but I decided to share it with anyone who whats to see Storyline is changed a bit and set in 2007 Boston slums.


"Ruby!" A woman called out from the kitchen she was standing in. She was chopping vegetables on a wooden cutting board net to a big, silver pot with broth boiling inside. A TV sat in the next room, the sound of a news report reached the woman.

A short second later, a girl about the age of 12 skipped into the kitchen, her brown hair swishing back and forth with her movements. "Yes, mommy?" She asked as she stopped next to her mother. The girl sported a dark red pleated skirt and a short sleeved, white T-shirt with a large pink heart in the middle.

Her mother stopped chopping and looked down at her little girl. "Well…" She began as she stroked her daughter's hair down. "…would you mind taking a little walk over to your grandmother's house? It's not too far from here. Just about four blocks away." She asked.

Ruby began to pout. "But mommy! Why do _I_ have to go? Can't one of the others go?"

Her mother stopped stroking her hair and began chopping vegetables again. "Ruby. You know very well that none of your other siblings can go. They're all way to young," Her mother sighed. She lifted up her foot behind her and pointed it in the direction of a wicker-basket that was sitting on the ground next to their refrigerator. "That's what I need you to take to your grandmother, young lady." She said firmly.

The little girl crossed her arms and sighed heavily before reluctantly saying, "Fine…I guess…"

Her mother chuckled and lifted the cutting board; quickly swishing her knife over the surface to assist in dropping the vegetables into the broth. The scent of the broth became stronger in the air as her mother stirred.

Ruby sniffed and licked her lips.

Her mother caught this and said, "You know, the faster you do what I asked of you, the faster you'll get home and the sooner you'll get to eat." She turned her head and smiled, her face showing the slightest bit of deviousness.

Ruby paused when she heard this, but then quickly picked up the basket and sped to the door, not forgetting to put on her favorite red hoodie that hung on one of the hooks next to the doorway.

"Oh!" Her mother called back out to her. "And do please be quite careful with that basket! It has two bottles of her favorite wine and a fruitcake."

"Fine mom!" Ruby called back as she opened the door.

"Oh, and Ruby…" Her mother said, now standing in the doorways of the kitchen. "Please be careful of strangers."

"Mom! I _know_!" Ruby exclaimed exasperatedly as she stepped out of the house with the basket in her hand. She turned back around, reached through the doorframe and closed the door.

The mother sighed as she returned to the kitchen. "Teenagers…"

Ruby turned away from the door and began walking down the street.

Ruby and her mother live in a slum in Boston, the tiny apartment they shared the only affordable thing for her mother's salary at the moment.

 _I wonder if she'll be home when I get back…she normally has to leave at 7:00 for work._ Ruby suddenly wondered, snapping up her wrist to take a look at her watch. She watched as the second and minute hands didn't move. _Great, I forgot to put new batteries in…_ She hit her forehead with her palm before looking at one of the street-side clocks as she approached an intersection.

The clock read: 6:03.

 _Maybe I_ will _get to see her before she has to go…?_ Ruby shrugged to herself and began to skip and hum a random tune as she crossed the crosswalk.

As she passed over to the next block, she stumbled and tripped, falling flat on her face and making the basket fly out of her hands and land a few feet away on the concrete.

"Are you alright?!" A worried man's voice said above her.

Ruby looked up from her place on the ground and saw a fairly handsome man in a business suit crouching next to her, wearing a worried expression.

She sat up and replied, "Yeah…I think I'm okay…" Ruby trailed off when she felt a warm trickle of liquid run out of her nose and across her lips. A few red drops fell to the concrete.

"Oh dear…" The man said as he pulled out a handkerchief he had in his breast pocket and handed it to Ruby.

She took it after a moment's hesitation and gingerly held it up to her nose.

The man stood up and bent over to hold out his hand for the girl.

She looked up at him before taking his offer for assistance gratefully. As Ruby stood, she tried to steady her shaking legs. She succeeded after a few moments and let go of the man's hand.

"Well, now, are you alright?" The man asked.

Ruby nodded and slowly lifted the handkerchief from her nose, looking at the red color now staining the once pristine frock.

She opened her mouth to apologize, but before she could say anything, the man interrupted. "It's quite alright, my dear. It was an emergency and it can be cleaned easily."

She looked down at the concrete as she sheepishly handed the ruined handkerchief back to the man.

He smiled and took the kerchief, placing it back in its original place in his breast pocket. Ruby stood awkwardly on the concrete sidewalk as the man suddenly turned and walked over to the basket, picking it up gingerly and weighing it with his hand.

Ruby wondered why he had weighed it, but she didn't ask why.

He walked back with the basket in hand and handed it back to Ruby. "I assume this is yours, young lady?" He asked.

Ruby nodded and took the basket from his hand, opening the wicker cover and checking to see if the things inside were okay. They were unbroken, thanks to the checkered blanket that her mother had lined the basket with.

The man stared at her as she checked inside the basket. "Just out of curiosity…what do you have inside that basket of yours?" He asked.

Ruby closed the basket and looked up at him. He was taller than what she thought he was. It's just some wine and a fruitcake for my grandma two blocks away." She replied.

He nodded his head absentmindedly, like he was responding to question.

Ruby turned to the man and said, "I'm sorry, but I have to go and deliver this if I want to have dinner with my mother tonight." She bowed slightly to the man then walked past him.

The man called out to her before she was out of earshot. "Are you sure you wouldn't like some help?" He asked.

Ruby looked back at him and then shook her head. "Sorry, but I think I'll be alright for now."

The man nodded in understanding and smiled before turning in the opposite direction and walking slowly away.

Ruby nodded to herself and continued her own walk to her destination. She no longer skipped or hummed, but rather walked along in silence, scared that the skipping would make her nose bleed again. After a little while, she reached the road her grandmother lived on and turned down it.

It was a shady and lonely looking road, and Ruby found it slightly unsettling about how quiet it was. It was almost like the buildings were eating up the sounds of the city, making it the muffled street it was. The sound of Ruby's footsteps echoed off the buildings and bounced around the street.

Ruby shuddered internally. _This is more like a creepy alley way than a street…_

As she walked along, she rubbed her nose gingerly with her hoodie sleeve, the appendage now becoming sore.

Suddenly, the Ruby heard what sounded like the scrap of shoes along the concrete ground bounce along the walls along with hers. She looked over her shoulder, but saw no one.

She continued to walk forward, but as she reached the middle of the abandoned street, she began to walk faster, until she was practically running. The footsteps behind her mimicked what hers did.

As she neared the end of the street, she realized that she was close to her destination. She sighed with relief at the thought of being in a safe place. She soon began to ignore the footsteps behind her and started skipping again. _Probably my imagination away….S'not a big deal._

As Ruby reached her grandmother's apartment building, she rang the doorbell for her grandmother's apartment.

 _"Hello?"_ An elderly woman's voice over the intercom answered.

"Hi, grandma." Ruby said.

 _"Oh! Hello dear. I suppose you want to come inside, yes?"_ Her grandmother said, a buzzing sound coming from the doors as they opened.

As Ruby said her thanks and reached for the door handle, a hand tapped her on her shoulder. She turned her head, only to have a sharp pain shot up her nose and her vision black out.

Ruby awoke with her sitting up against a brick wall in a dark room, hands tied behind her back and blood all over her hoodie.

"Ah, I see you're _finally_ awake." A familiar voice said from the darkness. A bright light was turned on and was shining on Ruby like she was in some sort of interrogation.

The man that had helped her up earlier was sitting in a chair directly in front of her, holding one of the wine bottles that had been in her basket. Only, it was open now and half empty. The red wine was dripping off of his chin and onto his once clean clothes. He wore a maniacal smile as he stared her down.

"Hello there." He said after a few moments of silence. He suddenly started laughing like someone had said a really funny joke. Then he stopped and stared Ruby down again.

The little girl was so confused and scared that she couldn't speak or move. She just kept watching with her mouth slightly hanging open at the scene playing out in front of her.

There was silence for another few minutes, the man giving Ruby an extremely unsettling stare.

"Welcome to my home!" He suddenly said in a grand voice, breaking the unbearable silence and making Ruby jump. He spun around in his chair and jumped up. He practically skipped over to the other wall and flipped a switch, turning on the overhead light.

What was in front of Ruby's eyes made her heart skip a beat.

What she had been sitting in for a long time could barely be called a room, but more like a really big closet. There was a small TV that was turned off, an armchair, and a fridge. But the color crimson had been splattered on the walls and broken glass bottles were scattered everywhere.

"Don't you just _love_ the colour of my walls?" The man asked as he did held out his arms in front of the wall. "I think it'll go _great_ with _even more_ of the colour added to it. Don't you agree, _little girl_?" He asked as he followed Ruby's eyes to the glass on the floor, made a short sigh and said, "The accessories for this place are not as glorious as the place's colour, but they're pretty close. Almost _to die for_." He laughed out the last words and picked up an unbroken bottle by the neck and hit it on his wall, the bottom shattering. He gripped the neck of the bottle tightly in his hand as he brought his attention back to Ruby.

"Wouldn't you just _love_ to help me decorate my home?" He asked Ruby as he got closer.

Ruby shrank back at the sight of the bottle and shook her head up at the man.

He stopped advancing and straightened his posture. He laughed aloud and sat down once again in the chair he had sat in earlier, giving Ruby the unsettling stare again.

"W-why?" Ruby asked plainly as she shivered at the sight of the bottle.

His tone became grim. "I'm just a shell of what I once was. I've been alone for many years. All my friends have gone and left me. Now, I'm just stuck in my "little zone." Stuck here to…decay, if you will." He sighed.

"An _**imposter**_ is what took my life away from me." He suddenly growled, gripping the neck of the bottle tightly until it cracked a little. He got up from his seat and went back over to the blood stained wall. "I never saw it coming." He sighed. "I'm so… alone…"

He turned back around towards Ruby. "You know, you're not the first one to be sitting down there, all tied up."

Ruby shuffled around, now uncomfortable with the thought of other young children being in the same position she was in.

"I _always_ invite newcomers to come and play with me." The man said, his maniacal tone fading in. "Most of them, though, _never_ last." He laughed.

Ruby gulped loudly, her eyes darting around the room to search for some sort of escape route.

The man took no notice. "Though, there _was_ one little girl who lasted about five days." His eyes bulged out as he laughed some more. "But you don't want to hear about what happened to her!"

Ruby stood up shakily, the man immediately standing at her side with the broken bottle to her neck.

" _Do you want to play with me?"_ Freddy asked her, pushing the bottle up against her neck so that it began to bleed a little.

Ruby stared at the insane being beside her but didn't move a muscle.

" _WRONG ANSWER_!" He shouted as he swung up the bottle and brought it down near her head.

Suddenly, there was a knock at his door.

He sighed heavily as the bottle stopped mid-swing. He then put it behind his back and went to open the door. When he opened it, allowing only his head to escape. "Yes?" He said in a new voice.

"Ah, hello, we'd like to ask you a few questions about something." The policemen at the door said.

The man stiffened up before saying smoothly. "I'm sorry, but I'm a little busy at the moment. Do you think you can maybe come back in a little while?"

Ruby continued to stare at his back as she listened, and she doesn't know how he managed to do it, but the police officers gave in to his demand and said, "Uh, Sure….I guess…"

But as they began to walk away, Ruby gathered up her courage and screamed at the top of her lungs.

The police officers were immediately back at his door, guns drawn and pointed at her kidnapper. "Open the door." One said.

The man quickly heisitated before saying, "Oh, no! No! That was my daughter! You know how kids love their cartoons!"

The officers exchanged looks before the other one cocked his gun and said, "Now."

The man sighed and slowly swung open his door to reveal Ruby tied up against the wall and the horrific, blood-stained walls of the man's apartment.

Ruby began to cry as one of the police officers immediately went over to untie her and help her to her feet, while the other one kept his gun pointed at the man, keeping him at bay. Ruby instantly latched onto the officer that helped untie her and didn't let go.

As they arrived at Ruby's mother's apartment, her mother nearly had a heart attack after what the police and Ruby had told her.

"Oh, Ruby, I'm so sorry!" Her mother said as she hugged her little girl and cried.

When the police drove away with the man in the backseat, her mother still hadn't let go of Ruby, until she pushed her mother off of her.

"Mom, I'm okay…" Ruby mumbled.

"I know, but still…I could have lost my child." Her mother reasoned, quickly hugging her daughter one last time before breaking away.

 _ **11 years later**_

Ruby was cooking something, its scent drifting through her kitchen of her small apartment that she shared with her best friend who was not home at the time.

 _Reminds me of the apartment I shared with mom..._ She often thought.

The things she was cooking were now simmering dully, and she realized that she had a few moments to spare to put some things back.

After she had put back some of the food things in her pantry, she thought " _Only one more thing to throw away…_ " She picked up the item and briskly walked into her utility room, where the trash can happened to be located.

But she stopped dead in the doorway when she noticed that something was on her wall.

The words _**"It's Me"**_ had been painted in large red letters, spatters of red paint all around the message.

And what also had been painted was the messy picture of what looked like…a wine bottle.


End file.
